Regional Synod News October 2023

     NEWS

Dear Friends: As you hopefully saw in our most recent announcement, Chad Farrand has been hired by the Regional Synod of Mid-America as our part-time Regional Synod Executive.  We are very excited about this change and are looking forward to Chad’s leadership and service in our region in this role.  Between Chad Farrand, myself, and our president, Chad DeJager, that’s a lot of Chads!  You could call us that Chad Triumvirate but that term refers to those holding power and none of us is interested in power.  Maybe the Chad Trifecta?  No, that has to deal with three winning together.  Instead, we all want to be servants, so maybe just a Chad Trio?  Truthfully, we often fight over who gets to wear the title of Chad the Lesser.  All three Chads, along with our Executive Team, are looking forward to whatever God holds for us in the future and hope you will join us in that expectancy.  I like how the Amplified Bible translates Psalm 85:8 “I will listen with expectancy to what the Lord God will say, for He will speak peace to His people, to His saints – but let them not turn again to folly.”  May it be so.
— Chad (the Lesser)

General Synod Corresponding Delegates Needed: we are in need of 1 Women’s Corresponding Delegate and 1 Youth Corresponding Delegate.  These corresponding delegates have the privilege of the floor and can speak to issues but are not voting members of General Synod.  The youth delegate is typically a college-aged person who has sensed some sort of call to ministry.  General Synod 2024 will take place at the Westin La Paloma in Tucson, Arizona from June 13-18, 2024.  Please email us if you are willing to serve our denomination in this way.

RCA Restructure Round Table Event: you are invited to an in-person, roundtable event at Christ Community Church in Lemont, 13400 Bell Road, Lemont, Illinois, on Saturday, November 11 from 9am-Noon. You will hear restructuring team members present the second (not final) draft of our proposal, and you’ll have the opportunity to discuss them and provide the team with your feedback.  You can read the second draft HERE.  Please RSVP HERE.

NEWS FROM CAMP MANITOQUA
Registration is open for Winter Blast!  WinterBlast seeks to introduce children to Christ and His message of salvation as well as to provide a setting and community where their lives are enriched through intentional and high energy programming. Our staff is committed to providing a safe and caring environment for your child. We hope that during their winter break, your child’s experience is a real blast!  Click HERE for more information and to register.

For more information about upcoming events at Camp Manitoqua, click HERE. 

Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing – Many pastors and leaders know that one of the biggest sources of conflict and decline in long-established congregations is the lack of a clear sense of purpose and direction. Not being clear is quite costly for congregations. Without direction and purpose, most congregations deteriorate into social clubs where participants compete to get their individual wants and preferences met.

Does Your Church Really Need All Those Committees? – Are your church members kept busy doing committee work they are neither gifted for nor excited about? Andy Lunt and Ted Brown say congregations can free people to serve more fruitfully in ministry by reassessing the role of any committee not essential to their mission or required by their polity.

Thoughts on the MegaChurch – Ed Stetzer takes a deeper dive into church size and specifically megachurches, which is the group represented by the largest churches list.  They are neither the answer to the problems in the church in America nor are they the sole source of them. Are there unhealthy, even ungodly, ways to grow a church? Certainly. But are all growing churches inherently unhealthy? Hardly. We all know better.

5 Cultural Trends Driving the Growth of Microchurches – Microchurches are the primary form of church in the New Testament and in most movements around the world. However, they have often struggled to be recognized as such in the Western world, which includes my homeland of Australia. Given what we see in the early church, it’s clear that “microchurch” is simply a new name for an old idea. It is a form that has existed throughout time in different movements, such as the Moravian Revival and other non-Western church-planting movements that have brought the gospel into new places.